I still want a hula hoop.

Hello. I enjoyed Christmas.

I loved spending time with family and remembering what Christmas is all about... dressing up crazy, opening presents, playing games, watching basketball, sleeping, eating food, and laughing.

Okay okay. That's not what Christmas is all about. In case you are wondering what it is all about go here... But I am going to share some of my favorite Christmas moments of this year.

My dad called me a player with a dirty mind. I love my family.

Five hours of card playing. Coming in second place every game except for the last one. That last one was a sweet victory. WINNER!

My crazy Christmas morning hair!

Listening to Andrea Bocelli's Christmas CD like 5 times in a row. After a while our DVD player switched the discs and we were all in the other room but we could hear the disc menu music so we made it a competition to see who could guess the movie from the music. We were all wrong.

Making up the word pretendency. (It kinda sums up my personality).

My dad wearing head to toe camo all day.

Reading the Luke 2 with my niece's cute nativity set. (Growing up, my little sister Hannah and I were in charge of  "acting out" the story using the nativity people. For some reason one year we had a chocolate nativity set. I ate the angel... Does that make me a bad person?)

Wearing reindeer footie pajamas all day long.

Eating halves of every kind of cookie and leaving them for people to find and enjoy.

All the kids sleeping in the basement together. My loudly snoring brother. (I thought he was dying).

When my mom handed out our Christmas Eve present (pajamas) and my dad had two boxes because she couldn't remember which one was for Christmas Eve. My dad opened the first one and much to his surprise it was a purple ruffled night gown. Haha. We died. "That's where my pajamas went!" Classic mislabeling.

Going to church on Christmas (I changed out of my footie pajamas... don't you worry).

My dad wearing a pink bobby pin in his hair during cards because I told him it would bring him good luck. Yeah he took it out as soon as he lost the first round.

Me and mom shamelessly failing at Partner Hand and Foot.

Singing my dad's favorite Christmas song, "Silver Bells" together.

Creating a new card game called "Draw the Joker" (or "Drug the Joker"). It's gonna be amazing!

Our Christmas morning lesson. We all got a magnifying glass and a mirror. My mom talked about how too often we look at the people around us with a magnifying glass, noticing their every flaw. But we should really be looking at ourselves with a mirror. How can we be better.

When my nephew got a huge cardboard cutout of Darth Vader. He squealed. Love that boy.

Answering trivia questions for an hour as a family.

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It was such an amazing day. I love my family. I am so grateful for my Savior Jesus Christ.


PS- If you didn't get the song reference in my title. You need to listen to this song.

Don't forget Winona.

Hello. My name is Winona. Yes. You read this right... Winona. Every time I introduce myself to someone new, their responses follow a similar pattern. "Wait what was that again?" Winona. I am called Winona. "Oh that is a really beautiful name. Were you named after someone?" Yes. My grandma. (If I am feeling particularly conceited I will tell them the long version... I was named after my grandma. She was named after a girl on my great grandpa's mission. My great grandpa served an LDS mission on a Sioux Indian reservation. This girl was in one of the families he taught). "I have never met anyone named Winona. What does it mean?" It means first born daughter. "Are you a first born daughter?" Well kinda... usually at this point I am done being the awkward center of attention so I find some way to stop talking about myself. My name provides me with a natural ice breaker where people can't see too much of my awkward too fast and run away, but just enough to make an impression. And since I have to repeat my name 56 times until people understand what I am saying to them they tend to remember it.

I will admit that there are a few downfalls... There are the times when people don't ask for me to repeat my name and they just nod and move on to the next question. That is when I start to hear the variations of my name. The most common variation is when people pronounce my name "WHY-nona." Which I do find comical but... my name is in fact pronounced wi-NO-na. (It helps if you say it in a British accent). I also have had people remember my name as "Willa" or "Winooney." Amazing. I know.


The majority of people I meet have never heard of my name. (Here is a song that most people know that says my name and you probably never even noticed). But I do get a lot of the country singer comments, shoplifting comments and the occasional I served my mission in Winona-- Missouri, Texas, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Indiana, or Kansas. I feel so blessed to be named after my grandma Winona. She died a few years before I was born, and I am glad to be the one bearing her name in remembrance.

"Whats in a name? that which we call a rose 

By any other name would smell as sweet."

I don't know if I agree with you dear old bill. I'm pretty sure you had it wrong. I definitely wouldn't be as sweet or interesting if my name wasn't Winona.